Team finds cell gene that helps viruses multiply
...n conclusively identified, despite a number of biochemical and genetic clues. Previously for RNA viruses, the only host factors identified were cell surface proteins that help viruses enter the host cell. Although the Wisconsin work was done in yeast -- an organism whose entire genome is ...Researchers identify novel penicillin-resistance gene in pneumonia bacteria
...searchers from Tomasz's lab have been studying the biochemical and genetic basis of penicillin resistance in the pneumococcus. The mechanism of penicillin resistance in clinical isolates of pneumococci was first identified in the Tomasz lab in 1980. He and former graduate student Sonia Zighelboim, Ph.D., studied...Biomarkers: testing for alcohol consumption among women
Heavy alcohol consumption can cause biochemical changes in the body. Testing for specific biochemical markers is one way of establishing the likelihood of problem drinking. Biochemical markers tend t...Scientists catch "molecular snapshot" of COX-2 in action
...ecular snapshot" of the first step in an important biochemical reaction involved in pain, inflammation and even cancer. The findings by the team from Vanderbilt and Searle/Monsanto Company are described in the May 4 issue of the journal Nature. Their work provides insights that may help guide future drug develo......ntified or that at least its activity in a defined biochemical pathway is known. The next goal for the researchers is to characterize in detail the remaining novel genes and to find their function. Some of them are associated to a number of genetic diseases mapping to chromosome 21 but for which candidate genes ...Fact sheet: the Report on Carcinogens - 9th edition
...information coupled with data on its genotoxic and biochemical interactions with human DNA led to the upgrading to a "known human carcinogen." Tamoxifen - Tamoxifen is listed in the 9th Report as a "known human carcinogen" based on evidence from studies in humans that indicate tamoxifen increases the risk of ...DFG to launch 21 new priority programmes
...in technical chemistry are less efficient than the biochemical patterns they have been modelled on. For example, with the aid of enzymes, plants can turn atmospheric nitrogen into organic nitrogen compounds. In comparison, synthesis of ammonia under technical conditions requires high temperatures and pressures, ...Yale study pinpoints how plants adjust to and grow in various lighting conditions
... "Our study is the first step in understanding the biochemical mechanism of this process in plants," said Xing-Wa...nderstanding how the entire mechanism works at the biochemical level. "We have found the key to how a plant can sense its light environment and modify its devel...New robotic microarray technology finds novel genes involved in cardiac hypertrophy and recovery
...overy that would not have been made using standard biochemical methods, eight genes were found to be associated only with recovery from hypertrophy (regression). "Cardiac hypertrophy happens when a heart is stressed -- as by high blood pressure, or when some heart cells die and others must overcompensate," expl...Genetic method has promise for assessing environmental cleanup
...ns from the contaminated soil. "It's like a direct biochemical method to take the attendance of the bacterial org...alize petroleum-based toxins, it is one of the key biochemical "pathways" through which the contaminants are degraded. "Of all the genes that we know about and all...Fine-tuning the search for biochemical characteristics of alcoholics
...The enzyme platelet adenylyl cyclase may be such a biochemical marker. The marker seems to work best among abstin...elated focus of alcohol research is the search for biochemical characteristics, also know as markers, that could distinguish people who are alcoholic from people w...University of Florida scientist maps brain reactions to food
...n the human brain after eating and the traditional biochemical indicators in the body, which are increases in the levels of glucose and insulin in the blood," said Liu, who also is affiliated with the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida. The findings could help scient......e body's response to a normal, orderly sequence of biochemical or physical signals by which damaged or "worn out"...ther SAANDs appear to act at an early point in the biochemical pathway that controls apoptosis and survival of cancer cells," said W. Joseph Thompson, Ph.D., vice ...Rosetta Inpharmatics approach enables identification of gene functions
...identify novel gene functions or to understand the biochemical basis of drug action. The results were demonstrated using a FDA- reviewed and approved non-prescription drug. "The compendium approach to global gene expression profiling described and demonstrated by Rosetta Inpharmatics has applications in new dru...Understanding of floral scents blossoms in Purdue laboratory
...ed snapdragon produce floral scents using the same biochemical pathway. They also discovered that the base material, or substrate, used by snapdragon to produce the fragrant oils is regulated by a separate gene. "This suggests that there may be basic genetic regulatory mechanisms responsible for floral scent pro...... is different from the intensive ongoing effort in biochemical research to understand what shape a protein is mos...f looking at protein shapes independent of complex biochemical interactions." "A fascinating question to think about is why proteins take on certain basic shapes...Even the Immune System works with Pincers
...body but only its quite rigid Fc fragment by which biochemical investigations had already shown that it is sufficient in its isolated form to bind the Fc receptor. On the other hand the Fc receptor was modified by genetic engineering techniques in such a way that it lacked the anchor peptide which...Molecular switch that inhibits fat cell development found
...of animals. Wnts regulate the complex genetic and biochemical changes that take place during embryological devel...o a cell membrane receptor, it sets off a chain of biochemical signals, according to Ross. Signals are passed from one messenger molecule to another until they re...'Fat switch' fights flab at the cellular level, Science authors report
...ses through signal transduction, which occurs when biochemical signals move or "transduce" from cell to cell, or from a cell's surface to its interior, eventually influencing the expression of genes. Because signal transduction alters gene expression, which controls tissue differentiation, reproduction, cell dea...Scientists combine chemistry and bioremediation to clean cadmium from soil
...to detoxify contaminants. "Bacteria have versatile biochemical mechanisms, which we thought we might be able to exploit intelligently," Vairavamurthy explains. In the end, the team has proposed a method that combines both approaches: First, thiosulfate, an inorganic compound with a sulfhydryl group, is injecte...